Behind the music: the zest of Quality Cable

Chances are you haven’t heard about Quality Cable, a band made up of students from the University of Louisville’s School of Music. With less than 200 monthly listeners on Spotify, the band has already released three albums. The third, Paper View, was released this month.

“Paper View has four new songs, and will really explore the reaches of our style more than before. We dip more into the psychedelic, the surf rock, and the dream folk depending on the song,” junior music composition major William Lamkin said.

After freshman orientation, most people don’t stay connected. However, it was during their orientation that Emma Treganowan (guitar and lead vocals) and Lamkin (keys) met.

“We quickly bonded over our shared taste of music. We would jam out a lot playing covers and coming up with band names for fun,” Lamkin said.

The following year, Treganowan, a junior Classical Guitar Performance major, pushed for a real band to form. Soon, Sam Kernohan (bass), Fiona Palensky (drums and vocals), and Andrew Ramsey (guitar) joined the ranks to fill out the remaining instruments.

“Quality Cable had been a name I’d sat on for a while, going back to our freshman year band name banter,” Lamkin said. “It had this retro vibe and cozy attitude about it, like warm memories of watching your favorite TV shows.”

The indie-rock band’s zesty, dreamlike sound is created through unique collaboration.

“Lately we’ve been a really ‘music-first’ kind of band. We jam out and figure out a vibe from there. We try to make tracks that we both have fun listening to and playing ourselves,” Lamkin said.

From a lyrical standpoint, Treganowan has the most experience in writing composition.

“Emma definitely does the heavy-lifting, but we do sit around and bounce ideas off of each other. We start with our musical ideas and mold our lyrics into whatever feeling we get from the music,” Lamkin said.”

Lamkin also recounted how the band’s first show in late 2017, a house show at UFO House, was nerve-racking.

“Personally, I was sweating buckets and I feel like the rest of the band was too,” Lamkin said. “By the time it was time for us to start, we didn’t even have an opportunity to do a sound check. I remember just blasting the people in front of the PAs with the loudest organ sound ever—some of the audience visibly hunkered over.”

“It was a really fun show though, people were dancing to our music and it made the whole thing worthwhile.”

Quality Cable can be found on all streaming platforms. Be sure to support local artists by buying their music on iTunes and Bandcamp. If you want to stay connected and know when more music is coming or where they are performing, the band is also on Facebook and Instagram at @qualitycableband.